“I like language,” says Amy Adams, addressing the audience at Corte Madera’s Century Cinema on opening night of the 39th annual Mill Valley Film Festival. A second after saying it, the award-winning actress smiles, then laughs lightly, as if suddenly aware that praising language while in the very act of using it, is, if nothing else, a symmetry worth…

“Growing up, I was always interested in ghosts and UFOs, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, all of that stuff,” says filmmaker Tom Wyrsch, of Petaluma, writer-director of the soon-to-materialize “Haunted Sonoma County.” “But out of all of those things, ghosts always seemed the most possible. I think there’s something about the idea of ghosts,…

For many, the act of attending a really good movie is a truly religious experience. For the 30th anniversary of the Wine Country Film Festival, taking place in and around Glen Ellen and Kenwood, the annual event’s producers are lending credence to that notion, with a strong lineup of international and American films that, as…

“When I know a film has a good message, whether it’s a science message or an environmental message,” says Kristi Draluck, kindergarten teacher at Prestwood Elementary School, “I can use that movie as a teaching tool. Movies like the Pixar films do get through to kids. When the movie shows animals or fish, or talks…

Blake Edwards’ “The Pink Panther,” released to an unsuspecting public in 1963, is best remembered as the film that gave the world Inspector Clouseau. Unstoppably clumsy, relentlessly persistent, the infuriatingly funny crime-stopper is arguably Peter Sellers most enduring and beloved character. But he was never intended to be a leading man. Initially, Clouseau was merely…

“I think a lot of what I watch or read ends up in the work of Kronos, one way or another,” says David Harrington, acclaimed violinist and founder of the San Francisco-based music ensemble Kronos Quartet. “And as it so happens,” Harrington adds, “I tend to watch a lot of documentaries.” For example, he recently…

Movies about the end of the world are never more popular than when we are most frightened that the world may truly be about to end. The pattern reaches back to the beginning of motion pictures, and forward to this summer’s “Independence Day 2.” The scariest apocalypse movies frequently occur during the most unsettled and…

“The specific vibe and character of Film Fest Petaluma has always been inextricably linked to the character of the downtown Petaluma area,” explained Michael Traina, Santa Rosa Junior College film and media instructor, and director of the annual short-film showcase Film Fest Petaluma.     “Spending a day in a place like this, that’s certainly…

For one full year, director Bennett Lasseter has been touring the world, visiting film festivals from Hollywood to Cannes in support of his award-winning short family drama “Stealth” – as it has racked up a pile of rave reviews and audience accolades. To Lasseter, a Burbank resident, it has been quite a ride. But through…